New Approaches to Disease, Disability and Medicine in Medieval Europe edited by Erin Connelly and Stefanie Künzel. Paperback; 175x245mm; ii+152 pages; 2 figures, 1 table (2 plates in colour). 441 2018. Available both in printed and e-versions. Printed ISBN 9781784918835. £29.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784918842. £16.00 (Exc. VAT) Institutional Price £29.00 (Exc. UK VAT)

The majority of papers in this volume were originally presented at the eighth annual ‘Disease, Disability, and Medicine in Medieval Europe’ conference. The conference focused on infections, chronic illness, and the impact of infectious diseases on medieval society, including infection as a disability in the case of visible conditions, such as infected wounds, leprosy, syphilis, and tuberculosis. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this conference emphasised the importance of collaborative projects, novel avenues of research for treating infectious disease, and the value of considering medieval questions from the perspective of multiple disciplines. This volume aims to carry forward this interdisciplinary synergy by bringing together contributors from a variety of disciplines and from a diverse range of international institutions. Of note is the academic stage of the contributors in this volume. All the contributors were PhD candidates at the time of the conference, and the majority have completed or are in the final stages of completing their programmes at the time of this publication. The originality and calibre of research presented by these early career researchers demonstrates the promising future of the field, as well as the continued relevance of medieval studies for a wide range of disciplines and topics. Contributions by Stefanie Künzel, Marit Ronen, Cathrin Hähn, Rachel Welsh, Ninon Dubourg, Clara Jáuregui, Lucy Barnhouse, Cecilia Collins, Erin Connelly, and Christoph Wieselhuber.

About the Editors
ERIN CONNELLY is the CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow for Data Curation in Medieval Studies in the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania Libraries. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Nottingham with a special interest in medieval medical texts and the relevance of medieval medicine for modern infections (‘ancientbiotics’). Her doctoral project was the first edition of the 15th-century Middle English translation of Bernard of Gordon's Lilium medicinae, the Lylye of Medicynes (Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 1505). She collaborates on a wide range of interdisciplinary projects, including a ‘big data’ approach to analysing medieval medical texts and using multispectral imaging to categorise stains in medieval manuscripts.

STEFANIE KÜNZEL has recently finished her doctorate at the University of Nottingham. Her thesis explores concepts of disease in Anglo-Saxon literature and culture, focusing on metaphors pertaining primarily to the fields of infection and epidemics. She obtained her BA from the University of Bamberg in 2011 and subsequently completed an MA in Anglo-Saxon and Viking Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Liber Amicorum–Speculum Siderum: Nūt Astrophoros Papers Presented to Alicia Maravelia edited by Nadine Guilhou with the help of Antigoni Maniati. xxvi+374 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. Papers in English and French. 302 2016 Archaeopress Egyptology 17. Available both in printed and e-versions. Printed ISBN 9781784915223. £56.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784915230. £15.83 (Exc. VAT) Institutional Price £56.00 (Exc. UK VAT)

In this volume, a pleiade of Egyptologists, Archaeologists, Archaeoastronomers, Archaeoanthropologists, Historians and other scholars from fifteen countries (Hellas, Egypt, France, Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Turkey, Australia) have combined their efforts in order to honour Alicia Maravelia, whose important work in Egyptology and in the foundation of the Hellenic Institute of Egyptology are highly acknowledged.

This book, with foreword by His Eminence the Archbishop of Sinai and Abbot of the Holy Monastery of St Catherine, Mgr Damianos, contains thirty original articles, two abstracts and a plethora of accompanying texts including Dr Maravelia’s list of publications. The book is divided into three parts: 1. Nūt and the Realm of Stars [15 contributions]; 2. Ancient Egyptian Religion and its Celestial Undertones [12 contributions]; and 3. Ancient Egyptian Science, Medicine, Archaeoanthropology, Egyptomania, Egyptophilia, etc. [5 contributions].

The reader will find papers that deal mainly with the goddess Nūt and her mythology and cosmographic notions related to her, the stars and other celestial luminaries, orientations of monuments, ancient Egyptian constellations and decans, the notion of time, calendars, religious and funerary observances related to the sky, ancient Egyptian religion, religious and amuletic artefacts, religious mythology, as well as archaeoanthropological and medicinal studies, papers on ancient Egyptian Mathematics, Egyptophilia, Egyptomania and ancient Egyptian collections.

Lemnian Earth and the earths of the Aegean An archaeological guide to medicines, pigments and washing powders by Effie Photos-Jones and Alan J Hall. 141 pages; illustrated in full colour throughout.ISBN 9780956824004. £30.00 (No VAT).

The earths of the Aegean, the ‘industrial minerals’ of antiquity, were used daily by people as medicines, pigments, fumigants, mordants or washing powders. Attempting to bring these elusive substances out of the relative obscurity of the documentary sources, this book investigates whether they can be found today on the islands that gave them their names and whether they still ‘work’. Probably the most famous of the earths is that from the island of Lemnos in the north Aegean which was bestowed with rituals blessed by pagan gods and the Church for over two thousand years. Having found its source and examined its properties, the authors suggest that ancient myths and rituals may be covert ways of expressing geochemical and/or industrial processes, whose aim was to enhance the properties of a natural material with positive results to health and the prevention of diseases. The need to understand the earths of the Aegean is now very important: they can potentially throw light on a well-recorded practice known as geophagia, the deliberate consumption of clays by humans and animals; equally, they can guide current and ongoing pharmacological research into minerals-based antibiotics. The book includes practical information for the visitor to Lemnos who wants to explore the relevant aspects of the island’s history and archaeology.

About the Authors:
Effie Photos-Jones is an archaeological scientist and director of SASAA, a company based in Glasgow specializing in the scientific analysis of archaeological materials. She has co-directed archaeological research projects in the Aegean and carried out many archaeometallurgical studies in Greece including at Lavrion. She has published extensively on the topic of ancient technologies. Her current interest is in early mineral pharmacological agents and the industries that made them available in antiquity.

Alan J Hall recently retired as Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow where he taught geoarchaeology. His specialist research interests are in mineralogy and geochemistry. He co-directed the research project on Melos.